Olympics are over ….. almost

I’m not going to lie…… I’m exhausted it was a long arse week that included about a day of Overtime and a day out of town delivering some conference items to another office that greatly cut into my Olympic watching time. I still managed a very impressive watch list for those days but the Olympic exhaustion due to the time zone change hit me hard yesterday. While in a meeting with my boss I could feel myself sinking and at one point he said “Marcy are you ok?” I immediately perked up and said yeah why. His response “I think your battery just ran out. Go home!” So I did. I then fell asleep on the couch for about 2 hours. Woke up feeling just awful, as I typically do after a nap – I suck at nap taking apparently. However it was a recharge I guess I needed to watch the Platform Diving semis, and some indoor volleyball, the end of a marathon, and some track and field during the night time coverage of the events.

The best thing about this Olympics being postponed, yes I found something positive about waiting a year …. Is that now the next Olympic games in Paris, France are even closer. . Right now the games are scheduled for July 26 – August 11 in 2024.3 years to prepare instead of 4 …. So yeah that’s a good thing, well for me not the athletes.

Random closing thoughts on this Olympic Cycle:

1.       Americans are spoiled – a medal is a medal. Sure no one grows up waiting a bronze medal but damn a Bronze is still pretty freaking fantastic. It’s time we stop that if it’s not a Gold it doesn’t matter mentality. Top 3 in the world is still awesome, top 2 is good and the top of the heap with that Gold is Amazing when you think about what all it took to get to these milestones, even without a global Pandemic, is what should be celebrated. Americans please do better.

2.       Mental Health – Don’t get me wrong … I’m glad that athlete’s are able to express themselves and are able to have their voices be heard when it matters and I hope that one day they won’t even be required to make a statement after something happens or they feel the need to pull out of an event. I do wonder if the “stars” of these sports weren’t the ones doing it would it be hitting in the same manner. If say the girl who was say 15^th in the world vs #1 was having the same conversation would we be listening. Sadly I think the answer is no. So let’s keep working on this guys.  

3.       Lots of first-time winners – Usually first time Olympians are there for the experience. They often get overwhelmed by the pressure and the just overall feeling of the moment they are in and yet this year there have been a lot more first-time winners than we have seen in past Olympics. So kids are either being better trained or are just getting lucky or they are just cocky and thus the moment isn’t as overwhelming. I personally think the pressure isn’t as high cause I mean most people do two maybe 3 rounds of Olympic games (depending on the sport) and so these “younger kids” know this will not be their only opportunity to medal and stay more relaxed.

4.       GOAT – The term “G.O.A.T” is way overused. There are athletes that deserve that recognition and I’d argue that even getting to the Olympics means you are the best of the best for your Country but not every athlete can be the “greatest of all time” cause if they are then they cancel one another out. They can be the greatest of their sport … maybe.. greatest for that moment in time, but years ago people would have said say Shannon Miller gets that distinction or Usain Bolt but their records are being shattered left and right. I just feel like we need to calm down with that distinction just a little bit and enjoy the athletes for what they are bringing to their individual sports without adding that moniker to their shoulders. Just saying.

5.       Sports I missed – I have watched more Soccer this year than in years past …. Not really sure why other than it seemed for a while that every time I turned on my various devices it was on my TV. That being said there are sports that I LOVE that I missed this year. Take Rhythmic Gymnastics and Trampoline Gymnastics, two really awesome sports to follow and watch but that never made it to my eyeballs this year and that makes me sad. I also didn’t get to watch the new Surfing competition but I’m not too chuffed about that. Sport Climbing I caught a glimpse of while they did a news around the games update but didn’t really watch the competition. Sailing, Golf, and Athletics were the same way but again I wasn’t too sad about missing these. Overall tho I saw more than I missed so I’m happy with my 2020/2021 Olympic experience.

 Time to catch up on my sleep. . Next up Dragon Con … then the Paralympic games which are often more compelling than the actual games to me. Then next year the Winter Games are right around the corner (Feb 2022) and Invictus will be back !

 

Marcy

Olympics Halftime - I NEED Sleep!

The first week of the two-week Olympic party is now in the books and what a week it has been. It’s been a thrilling week of surprises and things we saw coming and others that came from out of nowhere, I mean Great Britain 3^rd in Women’s Gymnastics ? I mean who had that on their bingo card. No one. Then again no one had Simone bails completely either. Now before you jump my arse I’m not saying she bailed, I know she was hurt. I saw the Vault that freaked her out and it freaked me out too. I’m just saying that before this Olympic games started no one saw her not being in the thick of it coming. USA Softball was another surprised. I fully saw them taking the Gold especially after being Japan in the qualification rounds. They were undefeated until the Gold Medal match and the bats just weren’t there. Hey I’m not one of those USA fans where Gold is the only color I care about … those two silvers are awesome and I’ll never turn my nose up even at a Bronze. I mean you are still top 3 in the world. Nothing to scoff at but those are two that I felt were pretty much ours to lose and boy did we. That being said even with a fully healthy Simone I’m not use the US would have caught “not Russia” they just had the best meet of their careers and if you are going to do it .. the Olympics is the meet most of them would choose for it to happen.

However … there are a few things getting in the way of my Olympic Dreams!!!!!

 Work

My job has been really cool about my watching the Olympics at my desk but I admit fully that my productivity this week hasn’t been at the highest level. I mean I’m getting things done, attending meetings etc., but I could have done more and I know it. I did watch the Woman’s All Around in Gymnastics the other day and didn’t even apologize for fully being invested in my screen. I also fully watched the Woman’s Football (AKA Soccer) match between the USA and Netherlands that went into overtime which was pretty amazing to watch live. It also didn’t hurt that this particular week many in my office left for a conference in Orlando so there were less people in the office than normal from Wed forward. Truth is they likely do too, but we all understand that this is a temporary drop in productivity and I will rise again.

NBC/Streaming

I’ve seen a lot of posts about the Streaming of these Games. I have also seen a lot of people complaining about the streaming options. I will say … I have fully enjoyed watching the Games on my cell phone. I have found that frankly the coverage is better. I do feel like the nighttime coverage of the Games is more a “hand picked” look at what NBC thinks I want to see. Stop doing that NBC. I mean guys I have been flipping back and forth between NBC, USA, NBCSN, CNBC, the Olympic Channel .... it's been a girls dream! That being said I’d say 90% of what I have watched has been through the Xfinity Stream Ap or the NBC Sports Ap. I used NBC Sports during the morning time when live events are happening but NBC is still showing me what they showed yesterday (AKA replays). I have been using Xfinity during the weird time of the day when there’s nothing new going on and yet the nighttime coverage hasn’t begun yet either. I do admit that I have missed the stories. The conversations about the athletes, how they got here, their stories of heart ache and triumph.

Timezones

Timezones are so fraking confusing. I added Tokyo to my “world clock” on my phone. Plus I found a great Olympic Scheduling ap that shows me the times in Tokyo but it’s still be hard. Like right now it’s 7:19pm on a Saturday as I’m writing this and it’s 9:20am on Sunday in Tokyo. I’ve dealth with that before but it’s been on a new level this year with so many following the games, social media reporting results like they will die if they aren’t the first to give any information and even NBC knows we know the results and are like the USA fought hard in this gold medal match that just didn’t go their way … let’s take a look… Like um you just told me we lost so I’m going to watch something else. It’s been tough staying up and then getting up early but totally worth it to watch these events as they are happening. Heck I’ve been watching a live even on my TV and streaming another on my phone while watching results coming in on my PC. I tell you Olympic Feaver is strong with me.

 Sleep

I an not like Golden, I’m not a member of Team No Sleep. I like sleep. My relationship with sleep is very important to me. However I’ve been neglecting it hard lately. But I know that like with work this is a temporary thing and sleep just needs to understand that. It is not uncommon for me to watch the games until about 11, go to bed and watch via my phone or PC until about 2 or 3 from my bed, roll over and rest for a few hours before I’m back up with my alarm going off at 5 so I can watch some before driving to work. I try not to watch while driving …. “try.” However it’s also fully catching up with me. I can barely keep my eyes open at the moment and last night I conked out and never even turned on my phone. I missed so many events last night/this morning since I slept until about 9:30. Opps. Most of what I missed was Track and Field, and while I try…. I just can’t get into Track and Field but I try lord knows I try.

It’s been a long week, we are half way to the finish line ….. as they usually say in sports … FINISH STRONG!!!!

PS - I have thoughts btw on the USA Women’s Gymnastics Team, and those thoughts are coming but I need more time to continue to gather my thoughts. If you follow me on twitter you have seen some of it already.

 

Marcy